The Inspector

Repeating myself with an oldie today, but my life got busy and I am doing OK.

Looking for Perfection

Hubby has worked most of his life in Quality Control.  This is perfect for a person with borderline OCD.  Was he born this way?  Possibly, since he is the oldest and as we have all read in countless articles on the Internet, first borns are the most driven. I was second born and am more in the slower lane, although my family may have something else to say about that. I guess I have my own crazies, but that is another subject.

Hubby looks for mistakes, searches for imperfections and finds satisfaction in any flaw he finds. You say that is a negative trait, no, no, he will tell you.  It is necessary and the world and I am better off knowing what is wrong so these things can be corrected and then we will all live a more satisfying life. 

The question always arises in our family as what to get as a present for H.  Give him a sweater or shirt, he will look for the loose thread.  Any item you present to him, he will closely inspect, turning it over a few times and if he has not found any failings, he will smile and everyone will rejoice. 

Now that spring has arrived, he has accompanied me on my walk-abouts in the neighborhood.  We cannot go past two or three homes without his commenting on the state of someone's lawn.  Dandelions and flowering weeds are not permissible in his eyes.  However, now that most of the offending plants have gone away due to lawnmowers, he is having a more relaxed walk and I, a more pleasant one. 

As much as all of this drives me up a wall, I do see some merit in his quest for excellence.  Heck, we have lawyers out there raking in millions for mistakes people and companies make. None of us wants to be a victim of errors in judgement or product failure.  However, no one and no thing is infallible.  Living with inadequacies is a good thing, it helps put things in perspective.  Mistakes are made because we are human and we all learn more from these than our accomplishments. It is about realizing not everything is important, letting things go and smiling and laughing at our failings.

I must say though because hubby is hubby, my family has lived a good life. I do like that I can count on him to fix things, to have remedies for problems and because of his piccadillos, I always have a good story.